The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 188

V. LASTLY, TilE INCIDEXT OF A GRATUITOUS BEATING OF' TilE APOSTLES AND A DARRI\N c_oMMAND L'\ID lf PON. Till'.~' Whateve~ i:nay be thought or charita?lY hoper\ of G:unahel, tho aclv1ser Ill this cns1s, very clear 1t 1s that those whom he hacl in fl.11enccrl had no deeper sympathies with tbe /!roundg of his advice, A'.!ainst these they nr,w aq much sin in principle as if they had laid violent hands on the apostles, accordinc: to the first dictates of their rngc. And so again do these men drop awhile from onr sight,. 'fhey drop into the ignominious shade, while it fares for otherwise with their beaten, commanded, but withal released prisoners. Cruelty is the covering with which cowarrlico now chooses to take its unavailing chance of concealing defeat already too shameful, but which rather adds to it and to the revealing of it. They disappear from view, "beating" the apostles, and "commanding them not to speak in the Name of Jesus." But it is a token of the literal fact that they themselves have been i<Tnominiously beaten along the whole lino of battle, the apostles and the truth and ,fthe Name of Jesus" winning the day.-B. Ver. 20.-The theme of themes: the angel's charge. "Go, ... speak ... of this life." There can be no doubt as to what is essentially the reference in this expression used by the angel. But whence the angel, so to say, borrowed it admits of a thought an<l a question. 'l'he angel speaks of the life involved in the fact of the P.esurroction -that fact so unwelcome to the pinched, impoverished Sadducees, ,vho now were the leadiug persecutors of the apostles. However great the single fact of the resurrection of Jesus, its greatness is magnified by some infinite number, when we regard it a3 an earnest and "firstfruits" of very much in its train. Ilad it been a unique fact, and been designed to remain so, it would have been shorn of the crown of its glory. Solitary grandeur and majesty must necessarily have robbed it of its power to thrill unnumbered millions with hope and joy, and to point all humanity to tbe one quarter from which light arises to it. Anu. probably the simplest will be the best account of the angel's naming it" this life." "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life," viz. the life which has been the unceasing theme now for some days, of your thought, your one unbroken affection, and your testimony. 1,Y e have here an angel's charge. Let us notice of what it is made up. The angel urges- I. TIIAT THE LIFE WIDCH IS TO SUPERSEDE TJIE PRESENT LIFE OF EARTH IS NOW TO DE THE DURDEN OF THE APOSTLES' PREACIIINO. Some persons object to the prominence given in preaching to wb_at is to come and the circle of subjects involved therein. They think it unnatural, artificial. However, not to do this is to put off a::;ain the unspeakable advantages of revelation. 'i'hat the practical duty of the present lifo shonld be preached by the Christian preachel' is a truism. That it should be IJrcachcd without the light of the eternal future, and what is most distinctive of it revealed it1 Scripture, is to tum the back on the priceless gift of rcYelation. Hence come the mightiest of living practical impulses for right, fur elevated, for holy life on earth. The mind stirs with a new and wondering gaze; tbe imagination is divinely tempted -not to be either deluded in the nature of what it takes hold upon or defrauded in the measure of it; and the heart is reached to its deepest wants. The infinitely enlarged horizon that comes of the revelation of eternal life does neither affect nor for a moment wish to alter the foundations of moral truth o.nd of duty. But it docs throw a light and colour and interest into the very midst of them, and for the mass of mankind first brings them into the class of acknowledged practical forces. At any time machinery is one thing, and motive force another. Christ's destruction of the boundary view death, and his illimitable extension of the boundary view onward to eternal life, legitimately make the very essence (not at all of the foundations of morality, but) of a very large part of the force of his appeal to mankind. The angel's chargo is dead contrary to anything looking in the direction of affecting to oo able to dispense with his method or to throw it at all into the shade. And the centuries that have passed since the angel released the apostles at early dawn from prison, an,1 bade them go and preach "the words of this life," have vindicated his charge. Thu preaching that has been filled with moral aphorisms has been dead and barren of force. '!'hat which has reverently but confidently dealt with tho tremendous realities of the great future untieen-unseen except by the light of rev-11lati0n and faith-has been  184' TUE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.